Feeder for driers



Jan. 9, 1945. GAUMER 2,366,779

FEEDER FOR DRIERS Filed Dec. 26, 1941 Z SheetS-Sheet 1 Robe/'7 T Gal/mar" INVENTOR ORNEYS Jan. 9, 1945. GA ME 2,366,779

FEEDER FOR DRIERS Filed Dec. 26, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 3p 22\ I fi -1,30 Z26 :Eja

Robe/f T Gaumel HNVENTOR A'TGRNEYS mass containing no large solid chunks.

Patented Jan. 9, 1945 UNITED STATES [PATENT oFFicE FEEDER FOR. nEI ns I Robert T. Gaumer, Toledo, Ohio, assi gnor, by mesne. assignments; to Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company, a corporation'of Ohio Application December 26, 1941, Serial No. 424,413

,1 Claim. (Cl. 241-47) This invention relates to driers, and more particularly to continuous driers for fibrous materials.

In many industries in which fibrous materials are used as fillers to form the body of a finished product. or in which fibrous materials are shredded and fiufied, it i the practice to impregnate such materials with solutions of bonding agents, or other fiuids, and then to dry the fibrous materials in preparation for further treatment.

In the manufacture of plastics, various types of fibrous materials, such-as wood flour and res fined cellulose, are used as fillers for the plastics and are impregnated with liquid resins which serve as bonding agents.

Impregnation of fibrous materials with fluids may be done by various methods, such as-kneading. shredding. stirring, beating, etc., and the discharged product from the impregnating machine is often in the form of a matted saturated mass which must be thoroughly dried beforethe material can be used. Since it is often desirable that none of the impregnating liquid be squeezed from the fibers, the material cannot generally be dried between rollers or in a press. Hot air drying machines, which carry the impregnated fibrous mass through chambers in which hot'air is circulated.

are usually employed. The speed of operation of such machines is determined by the length of time required to dry the fibrous mass thoroughly. The

output of dried material thus depends upon the length of time, required to dry .the material. If the fibrous mass being driedis semi-solid in It is an object of this invention to provide a drier having means for fiufllng up moist fibrous materials before they are subjected to action. a

It is another object of this vide a drier having means for breaking up a simi lar solid fibrous mass and distributing nature, it is extremely difilcult for the heated air to reach all of the dampened fibers and drying is I a slow operation. It would therefore be highly desirable to fluil the fibrous material before it is exposed tothe drying action.

Another. difliculty which is often encountered arises from the fact that when a mass of saturated fiber is deposited in a drier, particularly in a drier of the continuous type which has a conveyer to carry themass through the drier the fibers may cling together in varying sized chunks. These chunks of material, in falling onto the enteringsection of the conveyer, may be further compacted and squeezed together by the im-" pact r falling, which makes them even more ditflcult to dry. With zarying sized chunks of ma- --terial the drier must be operated slowly enough so that the large compacted chunks are thorough- 1y dried, which, of course, means that the output is greatly reduced fromwhat it would be if the material in the drier were 'inthe form of a fiufly the particles thereof on a conveyer. More specific objects and advantages are apparent from the description, inwhich reference is had to the accompanying drawings illustrating in Fig. Ill, certain parts beingshown in elevation and parts being shown in section. a

Fig. V is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view on a still further enlarged scale, taken substantially on the line V-V of Fig. IV.

These specific drawings and thespecific de- .scription that follows merely 'disclose and illus-i hm trate the invention and are not intended to pose limitations upon the claims.

A hopper lo receives the moist impregnated fibrous material from the impregnating machine (not shown) and dischar es it.onto .a-conveyer l l In passing through the opening of the hopper In the material has a tendency to be icompactedand compressed into a rather dense mass. In order to cause the material to be .fed from the hopper l0 onto the conveyer l l in'a smooth relatively even layer, the opening in the hopper may be suspended a fixed distance above the carrying surface of the conveyer II, or a leveling .board [2 may be provided to limit the thicknes of the a layer of material on the conveyer. In either event, the leve i operation further compacts the wet fibrous material so, that the layer carried forward on the conveyer. is relatively solid.

A second conveyer l3 leads from a position beneath the end of thefirst conveyer H into the housing of a drier l4, and these two ,conveyers constitute afeeder forthe drier- The drier H has a plurality ofhot air inlet pipes Ii, each of which may lead .to an individual compartment invention to pro- .end.

.a drier conveyer |8,'which is carried on drums l9 along the bottom of the drier. At the opposite end of the drier there is located an elevating conveyer 20, the lower end of which extends beneath the discharge end of the drier conveyer and the up er end of which extends over a hopper 2| 5 which receives and store the dried material.

Located beneath the dischargeof the second conveyer l3, and above the drier conveyer I8, .is a

vibratory screen assembly 22. The assembly 22 consists of a rectangular frame 23 extending .the large pieces about on the surface of the screen and thus causes them to break apart. -The bailie plates 49 prevent any of the material from jumping over the ends of the frame 46.

The gentleness of the action of the screen in breaking up the material is important. The liquid with which the fibrous material is impregnated is often syrupy or sticky, even though the fibrous material is only barely moistened and. is not itself sticky because of thorough absorption of the liquid by the fibers. If such impregnated transversely across the drier housing and lying V on a. horizontal plane (Fig. III). A pair of horizontally extending parallel rods 24 are attached ilar pairof rods 25 extend in the opposite direction from the opposite corners of the frame 23. he rods 24 and 25 are attached to the frame 23 by means of bolts 26 (Fig. V) which extend through holes in the frame 23, through the butts .ofuthe rods, and into threadedspacers' 21 located in the interior of the hollow members of the frame 23. The rods 24 and 25 are slidably mounted for horizontal movement in bearings to the corners of one end of the frame 23. A sim- 2B which are secured to two bearing'vlates 29,

one of which is bolted to frame members 30 each side of the drier housing. 4

'A yoke 3| is secured,' by means of nuts'32, against shoulders 33 on the ends of the rods 25.

The yoke 3| carries a wrist pin bearing 34 to 'which is attached a connecting rod 35. The

opposite end of the connecting rod 35 is secured. by means of a connecting rod bearing 36, to a crank shaft 31 which is journaled in main bearings 38 mounted on a stand 39. A flywheel 40 is fixed on one end of the crank shaft 31 and a multiple sheave pulley 4| is keyed on its opposite Y which are attached to the frame 23 and extend beneath its edges. The screen frame 46 has a screen 48 horizontally stretchedacross its openinc. Two vertical y extending end baflle plates 49 are attached to the end members of the screen frame 46 and have handles 5|| riveted to their upper ends.

When the motor 42 is energized it rotates the A crank s aft 31 and through the medium of the connecting rql 35 reciprocates the yoke 3| and the frame 23 attached thereto. I-Iorizontal reciprocation of the screen, which is supported by the frame '23 and located in the path of the discharge of the feeder, causes .t e screen to jostle and bounce the chunks-oi material is subjected to impact or crushing in being broken up, the sticky liquid is squeezed out, wets the apparatus used for breaking up the mass, and causes a sticking and accumulation. of fibers that soon clogs up the apparatus.

In addition, the screen, being located between the feeder discharge and the drier conveyer,

a relatively uniform low density. Further, the

jostling and slicing action of the screen on the chunks-of material fiuffs the fibers. A great number of air passages exist in and through the material on the conveyer, so that the heated air can thoroughly penetrate and completely dry all of the material. The conveyer in the drier may therefore be operated at maximum speed and the output of dried material depends only upon the length of time required to dry the loose fibers.

The embodiment of the invention that has been disclosed may be modified to meet various requirements.

Having described the invention, I claim:

In a continuous drie'r for agglomerated moist fibrous material, in combination, a conveyer having an apron for carrying a layer of material, means for discharging the material to be dried in small increments above the conveyer, a generally horizontal vibratory wire mesh screen extending below such discharge and above the cgnveyer, for receiving the agglomerated material and retaining it without squeezing liquid theremeans for reciprocating the screen, having a major component in a horizontal direction. the

. meshes of the screen being large enough to permit the loose fibers to pass, whereby the material is discharged from the screen onto the apron -of the conveyer in a uniform flufiy layer, and

means for circulating air in contact with such layer.

- ROBERT 'r. GAUMER. 

